Confining Bruckner to his short liturgical pieces is like confining Beethoven to his
Fur Elise
and claiming it a fair representation of his piano music.

Bruckner thinks BIG. To pick only one example, his 7th Symphony is a massive fresco which litterally encompasses the whole of the human spectrum, much like the Elgar Second. Try the slow mov't as a foray into his most profound inner thoughts, then the scherzo for excitement that borders on the apocalyptic. In my more imaginative moments I have seen the gods descending on horseback to Earth!